Remember the movie Cell 211, well the producers of that nifty little prison drama are back with a new violent and suspenseful thriller entitled Kidnapped (Secuestrados), a movie that I have been dying to see since last fall.
Let me first say that I never thought I would like a movie where, for 85% of the film, you hear an 18 year old girl constantly crying or yelling, usually I’d have plugged my ears but this film was too good for me to even consider that an option.
Directed and co-written by Miguel Angel Vivas, this home invasion thriller is about a Spanish family who has just moved into a beautiful new home. Jaime (Fernando Cayo), Marta (Ana Wagener) and their daughter Isa (Manuela Vellés) are planning the evening’s celebration when out of nowhere three men break into the house. After breaking Jaime’s nose, the leader of the robbers give him an ultimatum, if you don’t empty your credit cards and follow our directions we will kill your family.
The film violently unfolds from there and quickly escalates into one of the best thrillers I’ve seen this year. Much of the suspense comes from the camerawork and overall realistic tone of the film. There is a bit of shaky cam but a lot of the first person filming is seamless, even when the camera moves from inside a car to outside of it, there is no cut and makes it that much more fluid, making it feel less like a movie and more like real life.
I also enjoyed the way the movie was written because it deviates a bit from the standard clichés of these home invasion thrillers, although I won’t say what because I’d rather not spoil the ending for you. Additionally, the writers made sure that these men were careful and deliberate in how the treated their hostages which made it much more detailed oriented.
Throughout the film here were a few brutal and unrestrained scenes that made you both cringe and cheer, one in particular was the rape and post rape scene, they were pretty crazy and continually built up the suspense for the final act.
One aspect that I didn’t like about the film was how pathetic Isa was throughout the movie. I understand teenage girls would be scared in these situations but in every human being there is something called a survival instinct, the instinct that raises your level of adrenaline and heightens your awareness. Maybe it was because she was rich, but during a few key scenes including one where she could have even escaped her captors, she would break down and cry instead of doing the sensible thing that is built into our system, run. This really got to me but luckily didn’t ruin the film for me.
One other aspect that actually confused me was the opening scene. It was a man who had his hands tied behind his back with a plastic bag over his head trying to find some help so that he wouldn’t suffocate. I remember watching the scene and being freaked out because it was making me a little lightheaded, it felt so real and did a great job of conveying the man’s suffocating experience. The problem with it was that it wasn’t needed in the movie, it really served no point other than telling us that these kidnappers are experienced, something you could decipher from watching the rest of the film.
Overall, Kidnapped was a palm sweating piece of Spanish cinema. This is one of those films that you just can’t walk out on to go to the bathroom because you have no idea what important details you might miss. It is a short and fast paced film that wastes almost no time getting to the good stuff you’d want in a thriller of this caliber.
Rating: A gripping home invasion thriller that takes a hold of you and refuses to let you go. (7.7)
You can check out the trailer for Kidnapped here.
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